With the sudden and unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia we find out why voting for the next President is so important.

Scalia was a Conservative who believed the Constitution’s words, the text and the meaning of those words were important. He once stated that the Constitution is NOT a “living and breathing document” as his good friend and liberal justice Ruth Ginsberg believes it is. Instead he said it was a legal contract between us the people and our federal government.

The President has a Constitutional obligation to nominate candidates to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court. Many expect Obama will not nominate a conservative like Scalia was nor even a moderate. But rather a far left leaning liberal that will shift the balance of the court squarely into the hands of the left for decades to come.

Just as the President has an obligation to nominate a successor, the Senate has an obligation to hold hearings on any Presidential Supreme Court nominee. They certainly do not have to confirm the nominees either. Chuck Schumer said a lot worse than Mitch O’Connell in terms of blocking the appointments of Roberts and Alito’s appointments. However, Schumer did not have the 51 votes needed in the Senate to prevent the confirmations. Yet today he is calling for a “quick” confirmation of any Obama nominees.

The Republicans in the Senate may choose vote as a block against any Obama nominee or choose to delay any hearings until after this November’s election. However, if they take a recess, Obama can appoint a justice WITHOUT any confirmation hearings or votes. So they will have to recess pro forma as it is called. The Supreme Court itself has held that the Senate and NOT the President determines when the Senate is in recess.

There are cases on immigration, western land use, EPA, unions, and gun rights that can and will be affected by this vacancy and a shift to ideology on the court. Scalia was not driven by ideology but rather by what the words mean. He believed in textualism and was an originalist when it came to the Constriction. He will be missed.